The description that follows relates to pesticide dispensers and selection tools for guiding a user to an appropriate pest solution.
Pesticides are chemical or biological agents or substances designed to attract, destroy, kill, incapacitate, mitigate, and/or discourage one or more pests, including weeds, plant diseases, insects, or microorganisms (including bacteria, viruses, and other organisms that can cause plant diseases). As used herein, the term pesticide includes at least one of herbicide, insecticide, insect growth regulator, nematicide, termiticide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, predacide, bactericide, insect repellant, other types of repellant, fungicide, algaecide, miticide, fumigants, pheromone, antimicrobial, and disinfectant or sanitizer.
Commercially-available pesticides are typically sold in plastic containers in either ready-to-use form or in concentrated amounts that are mixed with water before application. Some containers, including ready-to-use containers, have a spraying device for spraying the pesticide onto problem areas directly from the container. With concentrated pesticides, some containers include a hose attachment for attaching the container to a garden or other water hose and thereby, depositing water into the container to mix with the pesticide concentrate. In some containers, the hose is attached to the container for application, and the pesticide concentrate may be diluted while being sprayed out from the container. In other cases, the concentrated pesticide must be poured from the pesticide container into a separate sprayable container and mixed with water therein.
Drawbacks of these and other existing products can include, for example, the creation of plastic waste and the challenge of safely disposing used, or partially-used, pesticide containers. Further, because most pesticide formulas are specifically targeted towards one or more problems, the user will likely purchase several different pesticide containers to address various indoor and outdoor areas. In such cases, the user is left with the problem of allocating storage space for the multiple containers and/or arranging for proper disposal of each container once its contents have been depleted.
Another drawback of existing products is the difficulty of locating appropriate pesticide product(s) for a given problem. Customers can be easily frustrated and/or overwhelmed when faced with a wall of shelves displaying various pesticides that are formulated according to one or more variables, including, for example, the affected area/location, type of problem(s), type of pest(s), seasonal restrictions, geographical restrictions, regulatory restrictions, etc. To identify the appropriate product, customers typically scan the shelves and at least briefly read each product label or try to locate store personnel to seek their assistance. Either option can be time-consuming and/or imprecise, especially if the customer (and/or store personnel) is inexperienced or unfamiliar with pesticide products.
In some cases, the customer (and/or store personnel) may not be aware of all the variables that should be considered when selecting a pesticide, such as, for example, seasonal restrictions that can limit usage of a pesticide to specific dates, or regulatory restrictions that can vary between neighboring states, counties, cities, postal zip codes, or other geographical zones. For example, current regulations pertaining to pesticide use for the state of New York differ from regulations for the state of New Jersey. Residents near the New Jersey/New York border may regularly crisscross state lines for work, dining, shopping, and other common activities, but may not be aware of the differences in pesticide regulations. As such, customers may inadvertently purchase a product that is approved for the store's regulatory zone, for example, but is restricted in the customer's neighborhood. As another example, customers may buy a product in the spring and continue to use that product throughout the summer, not knowing that the seasonal regulations for the product prohibit use after June 15th. Also, government approval for the use/sale of a given pesticide, also known as a pesticide product registration, can “expire” or change with time if, for example, the manufacturer fails to renew the product registration within an allotted time frame, or if regulations affecting the pesticide are revised or repealed. As a result, even if one or more of the seasonal, regulatory, or geographical restrictions are pre-printed on a label affixed to the pesticide product at the time of manufacturing, the printed restrictions may no longer be up-to-date or valid by the time a consumer purchases the product.